Haas completes F1 2019 car shakedown at Barcelona ahead of test

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team became the fifth team to undertake shakedown of its 2019 F1 car at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

Following its livery reveal on February 8 in a launch event in the UK with new title partner Rich Energy, the 2019 Haas F1 car made its on track debut at Barcelona on Friday, just three days ahead of the start of the first pre-season test.

The American team became the fifth after Mercedes, Red Bull Racing, Toro Rosso and Alfa Romeo Racing to complete a shakedown as the former two undertook their run at Silverstone with the remaining two at Misano and Fiorano respectively.

Among those, Red Bull and Alfa Romeo ran a one-off livery with the 2019 colour scheme to be presented just before the start of the first day of the test. Back to Haas, the outfit did not put out an official release thus far but uploaded couple videos on its social media.

It is clear that Romain Grosjean got his track run but if Kevin Magnussen joined him or not, it can’t be made out yet. Its simulator driver Pietro Fittipaldi was also present for the filming with the Brazilian to drive the VF-19 in the upcoming test.

It looks like, we will have to wait a little longer to find out how the new Haas colours look on track with the physical launch of VF-19 set for February 18 at 8AM local time. The Alfa Romeo launch is also scheduled for the same day at 8:20AM.

While the five teams have had their shakedown completed without any huge issues, Williams had to drop their plan due to time constraints with the same likely for Renault. It remains to be seen if Ferrari does any work in the weekend or go straight on Monday.

Freelance motorsport writer/PR. Loves motor racing, follows Formula 1 closely and most of the junior single-seater racing. Interest expands to MotoGP as well and prominent closed-wheel racing along with Indian motorsport.